How Did Fannie Lou Hamer Work?

social injustices. Hamer is rightfully celebrated for her oratory skills, and her legacy lives on in part through her speeches and testimonies. But Hamer had a storied life beyond her suffering, and her contributions aren't limited to adages. Hamer was born in nineteen seventeen, and her and her parents were sharecroppers, or farmers who worked land that someone else owned in exchange for a share of the crop that they produced. She picked cotton and worked as a time and record

keeper on a plantation in Mississippi. Share Cropping was a notoriously exploitative practice that was popular in the wake of the Civil War, and Hamer's family lived in poverty. Hamer was conscious of the racial and economic inequality she faced every day, and she was drawn to do something about it herself. She claimed that she didn't even know that

black people could register to vote. For the article this episode is based on hast work spoke by email with Dr Kate Clifford Larson, a historian and author of the forthcoming book Walk with Me, a biography of Fannie Lew Hamer.

She says that this voting registration claim was a myth that Hamer herself spread, a quote she knew full well that they could or should be able to if it were not for the voter restrictions imposed on Mississippians and the oppressive nature of the ways those restrictions were used

specifically to deny blacks the right to vote. She had participated in n double a CP membership drive, lives and met with Mississippi civil rights leaders during the nineteen fifties, but it wasn't until nineteen sixty two that she and seventeen other black people tried to register to vote in Mississippi. In order to register, the volunteers had to pass literacy tests, which were often used to keep black people from voting.

Hamer was not only denied her right to vote, but she was also dismissed from the plantation where she worked because of her attempt to register. It was a pivotal moment. For the rest of her life, Hamer would be knee

deep in politics and activism. Voter suppression tactics like literacy tests and poll taxes were rampant, and voting rights activists faced violence and terrorism, but Hamer was dedicated to the cause, and she worked as a field organizer with the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee, which was a civil rights group that organized voter registration drives in the South. Mississippi had historically low levels of black voter participation, but Hamer had

quote Mississippi and her bones. As civil rights activist Bob Moses said in the PBS documentary Freedom Summer, she spoke with black people in rural counties in Mississippi about registering to vote, and she gained support in places where enthusiasm for voting was low. Of policies preventing black people from voting proliferated, and the threat of violence against black people interested in politics loomed. Hamer was determined to make the

state a better place for black people. Eventually, she became the field secretary for s n c C, and while she was in that role, the organization's voter registration drives added thousands of black voters to the rolls. In the summer of nineteen sixty four, hundreds of volunteers converged in Mississippi to increase the number of black registered voters in that state. Hamer was one of the key organizers of

the project, known as Freedom Summer. A small percentage of the total number of black Mississippians who tried to register to vote were successful, but the project did lead to the creation of Freedom school which were temporary free schools for African Americans meant to help them organize for civil rights. It also raised awareness about the disenfranchisement of black people in Mississippi and marked a turning point in the civil

rights movement. The effort got a lot of media attention, and it was a significant moment in the build up to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four and the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five. In tandem with the Freedom Summer effort, Hamer also co founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party or m f DP in nineteen sixty four. Mississippi's Democratic Party at the time was all white, prosegregation and had a history of blocking

black voter participation. The m f DP aimed to challenge the legitimacy of the Mississippi Democratic Party and to expand representation to black people. When m f DP delegates went to the Democratic National Convention in August of that year, they testified in front of the Credentials Committee to demand end that they be seated in the convention. Hamer's testimony was powerful. She said, if the Freedom Democratic Party is

not seated, now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the Free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings in America. Hamer's voice was one of her most prominent features. Her speeches and songs were captivating. Larson said she challenged audiences to open their minds and see the immediacy of the moment

through her gifted interpretations of Bible passages. She spoke from her own experience, thus connecting her to everyday people. Hamer died in seven after many more years of activism, political involvement, and community building. Though voter registration and political representation are still issues that organizers are navigating today in the United States, Hammer's words and actions continue to inspire contemporary movements for

justice and human rights. Today's episode is based on the article Fannie lou Hamer from Sharecropper to civil rights and voting rights of icon on houstuffworks dot Com, written by Eve's Jeff Cope. To hear more from Eve's, check out her podcast This Day in History Class. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff

Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.